All languages share the same basic structure – vowels, consonants and some grammar. If you understand the basic constructs, it becomes easier to pick up languages. Programming languages are very similar in nature.
No one language is better than the other – it’s usually a matter of personal preference – what you are most comfortable with. They usually all share the same constructs and if you know basic programming paradigms, picking them up is very easy.
As I mature over the years as a programmer, I’ve come to realize that I am no stickler for any particular language, framework or technology. What works for one person might not work for another. No one language or framework is better than the other, it’s a matter of personal preference.
Being a frontend developer with this perspective helps a lot when I meet people who code CSS using less. I haven’t used less in 3 years since I jumped down the Sass rabbit hole. Recently I came across Semantic UI, which blew my mind in how it’s structured. It’s built on less and that didn’t stop me from using it in a project. I wish to be this flexible with all technologies I’m unfamiliar with.
Last year, I had an opportunity to code in Laravel, a PHP framework. Until then, I didn’t have a very high opinion of PHP, but was it a joyful ride or what. Laravel is a very cool framework and am glad I gave it a try. I was able to, with very little experience, whip out a RESTful API for an app I was building. That’s powerful.
Power I wouldn’t have experienced, if I had looked down upon the language or framework. I keep reminding myself this when I try new frameworks – react, ember, angular. They all do the same things but come with different schools of thought.
I would rather be the kind of programmer who can pick something up, learn and use it the way it is intended to than complain that it doesn’t match my style of programming – Flexible.
Agnostic as in no particular language, preprocessor or framework over the other.
Preference? Yes. Particular? No.
Agnostic as in it doesn’t matter if it’s iOS or android or windows.
Agnostic as in the right tool for the job.